


The summer guide

by melian225



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: HPFT, Gen, Greenhouses, Herbology, guide speech, summer tours
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-15
Updated: 2017-06-15
Packaged: 2018-11-14 09:09:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11204871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melian225/pseuds/melian225
Summary: Ever wondered what happens at Hogwarts over the summer?





	The summer guide

Good afternoon, and welcome to Hogwarts greenhouses. You’re from the British Society for the Propagation of Magical Flora, am I correct? Welcome, welcome. We don’t often have the opportunity to show anyone the greenhouses, as they are in use for much of the year, but the students have returned to their homes for the summer holidays which is what gives us this prospect today.

Now many of you would have seen these greenhouses when you were students at the school, but you can rest assured that several changes have taken place over the years. The current Professor, Neville Longbottom, spends much of his summer break scouring the globe for new specimens to introduce to his students. Even while he was a student here, he was able to bring to the school a magnificent specimen of Mimbulus Mimbletonia, which he was subsequently able to breed.

As you would be aware from Phylidda Spore’s excellent tome, there are over one thousand magical herbs and fungi. I’m proud to say that these greenhouses hold over eight hundred of them that we have been able to identify.

Are we all here? Excellent. Please follow me into Greenhouse One.

This greenhouse is used for first year students in the main. Here we grow many plants used for Potions ingredients, and some of those magical plants which are considered the most harmless. After all, you don’t want some fresh eleven year old Muggle-born encountering something like a Venomous Tentacula or a Devil’s Snare in their first week, do you? Now, who can name the plant in the corner over there? Yes? Absolutely right, it’s a Gurdyroot. This is a key ingredient in several potions which are brewed at NEWT level, so it’s imperative to have a fresh supply at all times. I’m sure you can all name most of the other plants in here – yes, fluxweed, knotgrass, sneezewort – and can you all see the Shrivelfig over there? I’ll wager you’ve never seen one that big before, have you? Professor Longbottom has mastered the correct dosage of both dragon and mooncalf dung in order to get it in the best condition it can possibly be. Please mind the Puffapods as you look around … yes, that’s why. Don’t worry, I’m sure you can get those petals off fairly easily.

Who would like to come into the next greenhouse now? Yes, follow me. Greenhouse Two has some more complicated plants inside. You’ll notice it’s a lot higher than the last one. This is because Hogwarts uses this greenhouse to grow some of the more tropical trees that don’t normally flourish this far north. Yes, yes, I can see you all gazing at the palm trees now. Look fairly incongruous in Scotland, don’t they? But they have some important uses. These are date palms – yes, you can see the dates on them – and the fruit is used both in the kitchens and in potion making. Here you will also see a fine assortment of bulbs, including honking daffodils and bouncing bulbs, as well as the school’s supply of Chinese Chomping Cabbages.

Over here you can also see the outstanding collection of Mimbulus Mimbletonia, which remains the only collection in Great Britain. Professor Longbottom has been painstakingly rearing these from the one plant he received as a gift while still a student at this school, and is singlehandedly responsible for the dozens of plants you can see here today. Of course, the Mimbletonia excretes Stinksap, which is extraordinarily useful in a number of healing concoctions.

Are we done here? Shall we move on? I know that Greenhouse Three is the one you all want to see. This is where you will find the more unusual items in the Hogwarts collection, from the giant umbrella flowers you will see above your heads, to the Fanged Geranium and Venomous Tentacula. Here are also the Mandrakes, the Bubotubers, the Devil’s Snare and the Alihotsy. Please take care and don’t touch anything, especially the Bubotubers or any of the biting plants, if you don’t have your dragonhide gloves on.

Do we have any questions? Feel free to ask at any time, of course. And once we have finished with the greenhouses you will certainly have a chance to inspect the Whomping Willow which you no doubt noticed on your arrival here today.

Please remember you are not permitted to take cuttings of any of the plants. Any applications for breeding magical plants should be put in writing for Professor Longbottom to assess when he returns. Thank you.

Are we all done? I’m so pleased you enjoyed yourself, and I hope you learnt something here today. Now, if you don’t mind following me to the Willow – and yes, please close that door behind you, it’s self-locking – I’ll give you some history on that. The Willow was planted in the summer of 1971 as a way of teaching younger students about dangerous plants. However, I’ve not heard of any lessons that actually incorporate the tree, so to be honest I’m not sure if that was indeed the reason. It was then and remains the only specimen of its type in the United Kingdom, with only limited records of other established trees on the Continent, in North America and in East Asia. I recommend you don’t get too close to it as if its in a bad mood it can certainly give those branches a good swipe.

And, that concludes our tour here today. The plants here have changed quite a bit in the last couple of decades … What was that? No, I’m sorry, I can’t allow you into the Forbidden Forest. It’s forbidden for adults as well as children, if we don’t have a strong reason for entering, and I’m afraid that idle curiosity is one thing that Professor McGonagall does not believe is strong. Anyway, if you did enjoy yourself, please tell your friends as I am happy to conduct these tours for the duration of the summer holidays. Once the first of September comes, though, as I’m sure you can appreciate, no more tours can take place.

Thank you very much.


End file.
